Grim Reapers
by AtomicAcid
Summary: M.E :
1. Chapter 1

**Alliance's lost: chapter 1**

Miranda Lawson tried very hard to reframe from using her biotic powers to slam Liara T'soni head first into the wall, she'd met Liara before but today was different, Liara's job is to know things but you didn't have to be a information broker to see T'soni had a serious problem with Lawson and the Normandy's second in command knew exactly what the Asari's problem was.

Commander Shepard walked into the room settling his gun back into the armory. 'Speak of the devil' Miranda thought to herself at the sight of her Commander. Shepard knew all to well how cold and frankly terrifying both the operative and Asari could be so naturally the tension he felt when he entered the room made him a little nervous, Shepard sensed a confrontation was building up therefore decided it would be best to separate them both, besides he needed to speak to Liara T'soni in private anyway.

Miranda Lawson returned to her office, the little incident in the caves during a Geth attack had been the last romantic encounter between herself and Commander Shepard and the moment had been cut short thanks to the Turian Garrus, but nothing was happening with her and Shepard and she'd accepted that nothing would but she couldn't ignore the jealousy she felt knowing 'that bitch Asari' was up in Shepard's Captains quarters with him doing God knows what, not that she really wanted to know. "Dammit get over it Lawson" Miranda grew increasingly irritated at herself, to try and take her mind off that arse and his little blue whore, Lawson checked her messages. There were 3 unread messages for the operative. Miranda began to read the contents aloud to herself "No I don't need breast enlargements thank you very much Mr. Junk mail" she moved on to the next which was a thank you from a young mercenary who had their life spared by Operative Lawson and given another chance.

Although Miranda had been reading the words she hadn't been taking it in her mind had wondered back to Shepard and Liara and what she cant stop picturing them doing, she'd only been dragged out of her jealous day dreaming by the content of the third message, it was from Oriana her sister, a very distressed sounding Oriana. _From Oriana Lawson: Miranda, I'm sorry to contact you I know you don't like me to but I need to know what the hell is going on! I wouldn't be sending you this if I didn't know you could help I know a lot more about what you do than you think I also have the same intelligence as you too remember? anyway my family and I had a trip to earth planned but no one can get onto the planet the whole galaxy around it is in lockdown there's real panic something's going on they've been trying to evacuate people from earth but everyone is saying the council have lost contact with the soldiers sent down to evacuate, what ever it is going on down on earth must be more than just a natural disaster because even the Asari and Salarians and other species are scared the Alliance have even turned up for a meeting with the council what the hell is going on Miranda I know you can find out if you don't know already._

Miranda didn't know what Oriana was talking about but if anyone knew about Earth concerns it would be the Illusive man, not someone Miranda enjoyed talking to anymore but she had no choice if she wanted to know what was going on. Horrified at what the Illusive man had told her she rushed out of her office to get the Commander. The crew on the Normandy had picked up rumors about there being a problem on Earth but nobody was really sure what to think, they all agreed it couldn't be worse than what the Collectors were planning, but the sight of Miranda Lawson dashing through past them towards the elevator with a look of fear and panic on her face, which has to be pointed out is NEVER seen on Miranda they all began to lose their cool slightly the rumors were now being twisted by the crew and turned from gossip into horror stories they needed answers and quick.

Liara T'soni had left the Normandy a while ago but her last words to Shepard were still firmly engraved in his mind, she wished himself and Miranda happiness, and had informed him that Miranda had significantly lightened up since Lawson had met the Commander. If Liara was right and she usually was then surely Miranda must care? Over his conversation with Liara his console had been notifying him of messages every few seconds like he was constantly being messaged, he went over to his private console and saw he had over 100 unread messages and many audio transmissions. It wasn't unusual for him to get a lot of messages but this many in such a short amount of time? something was wrong, well that or Joker needed to be reminded that he still had a couple of fully functioning limbs that could be damaged fairly easily. But no this wasn't Joker these messages all had different sender ID's and all have the same word in the subject title. Earth. Before Commander Shepard had time to read on any further than the first three words Miranda Lawson had burst into his quarters. Considering Miranda, for the past couple of hours had done nothing but think about Shepard and Liara T'soni bouncing around on his bed, Lawson hadn't even noticed that the Asari wasn't in the room. Whatever feelings she has for Shepard are the furthest thing from her mind, and now to tell the Commander.

Ashley Williams found herself in the awkward position of having to deal with the hordes of people all wanting to know what was going on back on earth. "Calm down everyone it's all under control!" It wasn't all under control how could it be when not even the council yet knew what was going on? but Ashley had to say that, last thing she needs is a riot not after the day she's had. She'd spent the morning fighting off a very well organized troop of Eclipse mercs who had seen the panic and ciaos on the Citadel and seized the opportunity to do a mass raid of the warehouse wiping out any security in there so they could get illegal goods through and across through the terminus system without any bother from Csec and she'd received a nasty wound on her leg which even after an application of medi gel is still giving her quite a deal of pain. And has now been left on crowd control duty after being excluded from the Alliance meeting with the council and also banned from even talking to Admiral Anderson because the council believe what ever is happening on Earth may be Cerberus related so the council don't trust her with any knowledge they have thanks to a rumored romantic past with knew found Cerberus lapdog Commander Shepard, once again a man she doesn't even know anymore has caused negative effects on her and once again both he and Cerberus are involved in human affairs, and not in a positive way.

One thing didn't make sense to Ashley, the Alliance had told her the Collectors were agents of Cerberus, but she'd also heard from outside sources that Cerberus's leader spent billions of credits bringing Shepard back to life and she saw Shepard fighting the Collectors on Horizon, why would Cerberus spend so much on him to then get him to fight their allies? but then she only saw the colonies defense towers attacking the Collector ship and heard Shepard claim to have been helping to a man that quoted by the Commander himself 'hid in his damn bunker' so the only witnesses of Shepard's attack on the Collectors were the two other people with him, one being an all be it very beautiful woman who Ashley seemed to recall jumping to Cerberus's defense on more than one occasion so clearly a Cerberus bitch, and the other a dangerous looking man with a huge scar across his face, now Ashley Williams wasn't one to judge someone on their looks alone but if this scary looking man turned out to be a wacked out serial killer it wouldn't surprise her. 'But if Shepard had lied about fighting the Collectors then who fixed and activated the defense towers? he would have had to so why would he if the Collectors were on his side? although they did still get away maybe he knew it wouldn't stop them, oh I don't know' a can of liquid hit Ashley on the head with some force which knocked her right out of her mental debate about Commander Shepard. "What the... calm the hell down!" Ashley tried ordering the increasingly angsty crowd, another can flew towards her but she was able to avoid it "one more can and you'll have Csec to deal with!" 'I cant believe I just said that' former Normandy crew mate Ashley Williams, an Alliance trained super soldier, helped defeat Sovereign was now shouting idol threats at civilians who were throwing beverages at her like hyper active children. "This is demeaning" she said to herself while dodging another can.

Commander Shepard, Miranda Lawson and Jacob Taylor all the left the debriefing room and entered the cock pit which by now was full of the crew members awaiting news after the Commanders meeting with the Illusive man, even the anti social Jack and Zaeed were there. Commander Shepard stood in front of his entire crew "I know many of you have had your focus taken away by rumors about the situation on Earth and although it is important that non of you panic I wont lie to you, the Illusive man has confirmed the worst and I'm afraid its a lot more terrifying than the rumors, Earth is under attack but its not the Collectors or Geth or another manipulated species sent in to do the dirty work, no, the Reapers are taking matters into their own hands, well figuratively speaking, they saw what we did against the Collectors and have retaliated, they are attacking Earth and its cities. The human race existence is no longer under threat, it's in war." The crew was so shocked they couldn't even bring themselves to panic. Samara stood up and addressed Commander Shepard, "we must act" the crew agreed with the Justicar, the rebel Jack also showed great concern for someone other than herself "we need to help them Shepard the Reapers will wipe them out!" Commander Shepard rested against his console and looked at the floor, Taylor shook his head in sorrow and disbelief._ Joker:"What's the matter Shepard what are we waiting for lets get down there" the_ rest of the crew also began to question the Commanders hesitance. Operative Lawson stepped forward " The Illusive man informed us that the Alliance are currently refusing to communicate with Cerberus let alone assist as are the council which means right now we are completely alone, we have a strong team but we struggled against the Collectors its a miracle we made it out alive and we aren't any stronger now than we were then and the Reapers are launching a full scale attack on Earth we aren't prepared for this, if we act now we will lose and then nothing will stand in the Reapers way"

The crew was deeply unsettled by what Operative Lawson had told them, "so what we just do nothing and let them die?" "I have family there!" Garrus spoke up "And what exactly do you propose Shepard does? only a few of us here even stand half a chance against the Reapers unlike all of you that got yourselves kidnapped by a bunch of bugs" Hadley lost his temper at Garrus "Ha and that coming from someone who looks like a giant stick insect!" Garrus grabs Hadley by the throat "You're weak! it took a cripple and an AI to save this goddamn ship" another crew mate grabbed Garrus's arm in aim to defend Hadley "You have no idea what we went through!" The Turian swung his arm back at the man sending him hurtling across the floor. "You're right I don't know what you went through but I do know it'll be nothing compared to what the Reapers will do to us all if we attack now". "ENOUGH!" startled, the crew turn towards the Commander who has now risen his head "If we want to save anyone then we need to wait till we are ready, attacking now wont solve anything believe me I don't enjoy knowing that those bastards are destroying my home and murdering my people but right now we don't have a choice, the Illusive man will call me in for another meeting as soon as he has something so everyone one just sit tight I'll keep you posted" Shepard turns to head towards the elevator just before entering he slightly tilts his head back towards the cock pit "And Garrus?... put Hadley down"

With Commander Shepard up in his quarters that left Miranda Lawson in charge, well that's how it's supposed to work but instead of seeing Operative Lawson as superior figure to be respected and obey engineer Gabby just saw her as someone to moan at about the events on Earth. As much as Miranda tried to relax Gabby the engineer just kept on and on at the Operative as if it were her fault the Reapers were attacking Earth, everybody see's Miranda Lawson as a cold hearted bitch so Gabby didn't realize that Miranda was just as worried and upset about what was happening and continually accusing her of not caring and not doing enough was actually hurting Shepard's second in command. Jack however could see it, she could see the tears filling up in Lawson's eyes, Jack also has a reputation for lacking emotions which of course isn't true she just hides them well as she knew Lawson also did, then subject zero did something very odd, she came to Miranda's aid. "Hey back off moron! don't you have some little metal wheels that need turning?" If there was anyone that intimidated Gabby it was Jack so hearing the sincerity in the ex convicts voice she decided to do what she said and left the cock pit. Miranda turned her head in Jacks direction but kept her head faced down to hide her tear filled eyes "...Thank you, Jack" Jack gave a reluctant half smile "Yeah"

Miranda had enough of the crew taking out their fear and frustrations on her and herself not being able to do the same but there was one person who had given Miranda a reason to be annoyed at them so she had the perfect excuse to take everything out on that person, so she made her way up to the Captains quarters, in the trip in the elevator she was planning her whole ranty speech about him giving her the brush off and Liara T'soni, but upon entering Shepard's room and seeing him stood there in front of her the only thing she wanted was for him to hold her, she threw herself at the Commander wrapping her arms around him, Shepard rested one hand behind her head pulling her into him and the other around her waist. "Shepard what are we going to do?" The Commander could just about make out what Miranda was saying tears were streaming down her face and she was starting to become hysterical. Shepard picked Miranda up in his arms and laid her down on his bed, he took off her uniform, Miranda wasn't entirely sure where this was going but was too weak willed to resist it. Shepard then undressed himself into only his boxers he got into bed with Miranda and lay down beside her. Miranda looked at him in confusion, the Commander put his arm around her and pulled her into him Miranda just lay on his chest listening to his heart beat. There was no sex no arguing, no words the two Commanders of the Normandy just fell to sleep in each others arms.


	2. Chapter 2

**Alliances lost: Chapter 2**

'S.W.S.U' there was those letters again, every where the earth girl Amaya went these initials were painted and scribbled over walls and buildings, well what was left of the buildings. She'd even witnessed people screaming it while they died, every human left on the planet knew what the letters stood for although it was a secret message passed from person to person so that 'they' wouldn't understand it. People even risked and lost their lives passing this message to people, they believed this message so much they were willing to die for it. Amaya wasn't necessarily pessimistic but when she could still here the screams of her dying family echoing through her mind weeks after they'd gone she figured this message meant fuck all, just last ditch desperation from the scared and stupid.

However her brother and last remaining family member believed this message he even had it scratched into his shotgun, which coincidently he happened to be firing right now. "Block the doors Amaya, more will be along soon" Amaya nodded and pushed some old crates filled with rubble from other parts of what used to be her place of work in front of the door. Kaage, her brother reequipped his shotgun with thermal clips and scouted outside the windows. "Shhh" Amaya didn't hear her brothers shushing and continued pushing the crates which was making a lot of noise. "Amaya shhh!" hearing him this time she stopped and crept towards the wall besides the window "What? Are those glowing zombie things back". Kaage hid behind the wall on the other side of the window "I don't know, it's weird there's only one of whatever it is", "Well does it matter how many of the fuckers there are just shoot the damn thing Kaage" Kaage looked towards his sister and shook his head "No, it could be a survivor" Irritated at her brother Amaya grabbed the gun from him "It could be a zombie coming to rip us apart!" she entered the open space of the window and raised the gun to shoot whatever the figure was "If you wont kill it I will". Kaage jumped at his sister and tried to take the gun back. "Relax Kaage I couldn't see anything anyway, so either you imagined it or..." There was a loud bang behind the door, "it's already made it inside"

_Muffled voice from behind the door: "Let me in God let me in!"_ Kaage pulled the shotgun from his sister's hands, loaded it and cautiously preceded towards the semi barricaded door "Who are you?" _Muffled voice: "I'm someone who needs help, please the husks are coming!" _ Kaage moved the crate out of the way "Ok I'm letting you in but I warn you in advance I am armed and wont hesitate to shoot so don't try anything, what's the password?" _Muffled voice: "Password? You've got to be fucking kidding me you said you'd let me in fuck please the husks!" _ Amaya steps forward "You heard him asshole what's the password?" The familiar screeching and groaning of the zombie things starting getting louder, they were getting closer and closer. _Muffled voice: "ahh, erm fuck! S...fuck erm s w su!" _the male behind the doors voice was faint. "What?" Kaage shouted at the door, _Muffled voice: "for fuck sakes! S W S U, Shepard will save us, swsu! Now let me in please!" _ Kaage pulled open the door and dragged the stranger inside throwing the man down behind Amaya, Kaage then began taking out the zombies moving towards him. When Kaage had eliminated them his sister Amaya slammed the door and moved the crate back in front of it, she sat and rested against the crate and questioned the stranger "So who are you, and what's a husk?" the stranger sits up "My name is Efren I am an ex Alliance soldier, and what do you mean what are husks? Those things the guy here just killed" Kaage set his gun down and sat down by Efren "Hi Efren I'm Kaage and this is my sister Amaya" Kaage is friendly by nature but Amaya has lost her warmth since the attacks, she wasn't afraid to offend people which Efren was about to find out.

"What kind of soldier runs away screaming and where are your weapons?" although Efren didn't appreciate Amaya's words she was right so he wasn't about to argue "Like I said, I'm an ex Alliance soldier, they kicked me out for incompetence they took my weapons my armour my uniform, they took everything", "Why what did you do?" Amaya replied to the man. "A while back, we're talking several years here the Alliance sent us out to stop this crook, some Salarian guy called Ish he was selling privileged information about certain people in the Alliance a bit higher up the chain than me, well anyway myself and a couple of guys had to go deal with him he wasn't dangerous so it didn't need a big military invasion, I was put in charge but we weren't the only ones looking for Ish some Cerberus officers were after him too, some chic Lawson told us to go back that anything concerning Ish was her business, well you know Cerberus's anti alien reputation I figured she probably wasn't there to save him so I told my boys to leave and thought id let Cerberus deal with him" , "So I'm guessing Cerberus didn't deal with this Ish?" Kaage said to Efren while cleaning the husk guts from his shotgun. "Bingo, my immediate superior a right pain in the ass at the best of times told me Ish was still operating freely said that Cerberus had given him a free pass off Ilium, now he also told me that a confrontation with Cerberus would of been bad because of what slippery bastards they were so letting them get Ish for now would of been a good idea but not knowing they'd feel that way and being so sure this woman would kill him I told the Alliance id taken out Ish myself"

Amaya was interested in this Ish character "So what did he have on the Alliance, I mean isn't having someone killed unlike them? More Cerberus style" Efren had to laugh at this "Since being removed from the constant Alliance propaganda bullshit I've learnt there's only one difference between Cerberus and the Alliance, the Alliance hide their shady business better than Cerberus do, they are no more trustworthy or any better than Cerberus and I never found out what Ish knew, not even the guy who gave the command to take him out even knew", "So if the Alliance aren't all good then this SWSU is all bullshit right I mean this Shepard is some big Alliance guy so he's not going to save us? Not like one human could stop those machines anyway", Kaage sighed "Amaya don't start this again Shepard is a hero and he is going to stop them, keep faith" Efren agreed with Kaage "Yeah Shepard will help us he's saved the galaxy before he can do it again plus he isn't with the Alliance anymore, I heard he works for Cerberus now" Amaya's eyes widened "Cerberus? Oh well that makes me feel much better" the girl said sarcastically, Kaage looked at his sister with the look on his face that after growing up with him Amaya knew meant she should really shut up for her own health.

Amaya remembered that night vividly, the night she met her fiancé Efren and the night she lost her brother, a mass amount of husks turned up to the building they were at and Kaage led them all away to save his little sister, he never returned. It's funny, losing her family made Amaya lose all belief that earth would ever be saved or that she would ever survive, but the faith the love of Efren had given her was so strong she did believe again, and most importantly she knew exactly who to believe in, his name? Commander Shepard.

_Illusive man :"Shepard, we've lost contact with the Tokyo group on earth, we no longer have any information coming in about the Reaper attacks, you are going to have to find some form of battle plan on the knowledge we already have until I get new information" _ "How the hell am I supposed to do that? we still don't have the weaponry to take on the Reapers let alone a big enough team!" _Illusive man: "Maybe now you see why I asked you to keep the Collector base and not destroy it, we could of been on earth and destroying the Reapers by now if you hadn't of disobeyed me, so don't talk to me in that tone Shepard you brought this on yourself" _ "That base was just wrong, everything it stood for was just..wrong" Miranda stepped forward into the holographic transmission to the Illusive man, "Shepard's right the Collector base was evil" the Illusive man extinguished his cigarette into an ashtray and blew the last bit of smoke out of his mouth _Illusive man : "The base wasn't evil, what the Collectors were using it for was evil and I don't see how this conversation involves you Miranda, you resigned from your position it's a shame if you had told me that the key to getting your full loyalty was to sleep with you I would of bedded you along time ago" _ "What the hell is that supposed to mean" Miranda snapped at the Cerberus leader, _ Illusive man: "News travels fast Miranda, it seems that the Normandy isn't the only ship the Commander has been aboard" _ "You son of a bitch!" Miranda charged up her biotic powers only to remember the Illusive man wasn't actually in the same room so she couldn't do anything, Shepard gently grabbed Miranda's arm and stepped in front of her "You're out of line 'Illusive man'!" _Illusive man: "No Shepard you are out of line, too busy poisoning my operatives minds and playing Casanova to put humanity's best interests at heart, and also thanks to your reckless actions we are being prevented from being able to operate properly in public thanks to you and Massani taking out the head of the Blue Suns, not that a bunch of trigger happy mercs are the problem, the problem is we have lost even more public trust thanks to the news that in pursuing the boss of the Blue Suns you allowed a lot of people to die!" _

Commander Shepard ordered Joker to cut off the Illusive man, noticing how enraged Miranda Lawson still was Shepard gently stroked her back and kissed her on the forehead "Don't let him get to you, he's just pissed that you got wise to what he was really like, as much trust as he put in your abilities he underestimated your intelligence" the commander then proceeded towards the doors, "Shepard?" the operative replied, "Shepard, have you told anyone about what happened between us? How did he even know" Commander Shepard turned back round facing Miranda "No I didn't, I think people have noticed a change in you, something Liara said to me when we had that private talk that you have lightened up a lot since she last met you" Miranda looked up to face her Commander "A talk? So you... you didn't sleep with her?" Shepard smiled "No I didn't sleep with Liara, there is nothing between us the only person I am interested in is you, and so far you haven't been easy to obtain but I've defeated Sovereign and the Collectors so I figure getting you into bed again wont be all that difficult" Miranda smirks "You know you really shouldn't be so cocky" Commander Shepard walks over to Miranda and stands directly in front of her "Hey you created the monster Frankenstein, you rebuilt me and you do damn good work remember?" Miranda puts her arms around Shepard's neck "Yes, I remember" Commander Shepard pushes Operative Lawson back against the wall in the debriefing room and the two of them being kissing very passionately while Shepard runs his hands down Miranda's body and around her ass pulling her bottom half into his crotch.

"Ahem" Tali'Zorah stood in the door way of the debriefing room "I didn't mean to interrupt but the crew are all waiting to know what the Illusive man said and Joker informed us the transmission had ended a while ago, we wondered where you were" Miranda pushed Shepard off her and straightened out her uniform while walking past the Commander she whispered in his ear _"We'll continue this later" _she then winked at him and walked towards the doors, Miranda Lawson in an effort to save herself any further embarrassment avoided all eye contact with the Quarian well all eye to helmet contact and exited the debriefing room. Tali walked in closer to Shepard "I'm sorry, I didn't know I shouldn't of came in", "No need to apologise Tali, just don't tell anyone about erm", although it was hard to tell with Quarian's but Tali'Zorah seemed offended "Of course I'm not going to tell people, I'm surprised that you even think I would" , the commander put his hand on Tali's shoulder " I didn't mean to offend you Tali" the Commander smiled at the Quarian and the two proceeded out of the debriefing room to join the rest of the crew. He had quite a lot to tell them.


End file.
